Copperbelt strike
The Copperbelt strike in the industrial area Copperbelt ("copper belt") of today's state of Zambia took place in May 1935 in the copper mines and smelters of the cities of Mufulira , Kitwe and Luanshya .
procedure
It was a strike by the black African colliery and ironworkers who protested against the taxes that the British colonial government had imposed on them, which were perceived as unjust, and hit both of the mine owners' companies ( Anglo-American Corp., Rhodesia Selection Trust ) equally. The strike had been organized with the help of the Welfare Societies (for example: welfare organizations), since the black African workforce members had not yet been allowed to form unions , but social institutions were. Although it was largely non-violent, the British police shot and killed six miners in Luanshya. The strike was then called off, although the direct strike objective had not been achieved.
meaning
However, indirectly this strike was very momentous. It was the first industrial union action in the whole of Central Africa, and indeed - in terms of regional history - in what was then British " Northern Rhodesia " and not in the nearby Belgian Katanga district. Until today it is considered by the Zambians to be the first revolt against colonial rule. The Welfare Societies created the African Mineworkers Union (AMU), the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress (ANC) and then the United National Independence Party (UNIP), from which all other Zambian parties have split up to this day.
In the industrial labor struggles of the 1940s and 1950s, the organized industrial workers finally emerged as the cadre forge of the trade union and then, to a large extent, the political elite of the future Zambia. In addition, the fact that people from African countries from Tanzania to South Africa worked in the Copperbelt and were integrated through the joint work, i.e. did not organize themselves neotribalistically against each other in the Copperbelt area , proved to be fundamental for the later state unity of Zambia. Integration in the Copperbelt has become a binding political norm for all around 70 tribes in Zambia. Whoever immigrated to Zambia had to comply with this norm.
literature
- Lars Clausen : Industrialization in Black Africa. Bertelsmann, Bielefeld 1968.